Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Tapestry due to be opened

News Article Details

• Publication: The Courier
• Author: Tom O'Connor
• Date: 16-06-2005

Description

Well worn: Michael Linton with the paint brush he has used during the 25 years it took him to complete his mosaic of the famous Bayeux Tapestry.

GERALDINE historian, mathematician and puzzle maker Michael Linton has added the missing final chapter to a mosaic copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, the graphic record of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

His enormous work, which took 25 years to complete, will be formally opened to the public in Christchurch in July.

When ancient historians recorded William of Normandy's historic victory over Harold of England in which King Harold was killed with an arrow in the eye, they either left out some of the story or the final chapters were subsequently removed from the record.

For the past 25 years, Mr Linton has spent most of his spare tune reproducing the famous tapestry in mosaic from about two million tiny pieces of steel, adding the final chapters in what he has called the finale piece.

Mr Linton said the tapestry was actually a piece of embroidery and shows in graphic detail the bloody battle of Hastings between the Normans and the English, but stops at the conclusion of the first battle. The tapestry, now kept in France, reads almost like a modern comic strip and shows how Norman archers and mounted cavalry overran English foot soldiers who were armed with ancient broad swords and battle-axes.

Mr Linton, a former textile technician, stumbled on the idea of using tiny cast off pieces of steel from knitting machine programming discs to form mosaic pictures 25 years ago.